Sorry for the late update! Hopefully you read my author's note. If not, please check it out if you want to know why I was a day late.
This is the last chapter I have pre-written. From here on out I honestly can't tell you when I will update. It could be less than a week, or it could be more than a month. It all depends on that lovely thing we call a muse. The good news is that I'm definitely writing - I just wrote about 4,000 words for this story, which while not a lot is still much better than nothing. The bad news is that those 4,000 words were for a chapter far far away from this one. Still, at least I'm writing, right? I have been working on the fifth chapter, but it's coming much slower than I originally anticipated. I hope it won't be much longer, but if it is just know that I'm doing everything in my power to update as soon as possible.
I apologize if this chapter isn't up to my usual standards. I wrote it when I was still struggling through a huge part of my writer's block. I went through it and tried to add improvements, but there is only so much one can do. It is, admittedly, a bit of a filler chapter (though it still has a purpose). And for all of you wondering about H/Hr interaction, it's coming, I promise! Not in this chapter, but eventually. Again, I sort of need to set things up before I can everything rolling.
I hope you enjoy!
*****
"So you want a summer wedding?"
"Mum, you know that can't happen," Hermione replied, brushing a stray strand of bushy hair out of her face. She contained the urge to massage her forehead. So far she had spent two hours discussing possible wedding plans with her mother, and it was beginning to take its toll. "He's, I mean, we're," Hermione quickly corrected herself, "moving in less than two months. It'll have to be by May."
"So I guess we can cross a seaside wedding off the list," Mrs Granger muttered under her breath, making a line through the second idea on her paper.
"Actually, I think we're going to hold it in a church," Hermione said as she browsed through a floral catalogue.
Mrs Granger's jaw dropped open. "A church? You in a church? I don't even know if I can imagine you going to church, let alone getting married in one."
"Just because I'm not religious doesn't mean that it isn't a valid option," Hermione argued. Mrs Granger raised an eyebrow. "Well what am I supposed to do?" Hermione demanded, slamming her magazine closed. This had been a very stressful twenty-four hours, and her mother wasn't making it any easier. "Andrew happens to come from a fairly pious family, and getting married in a church means quite a lot to them."
"What about what matters to you?" Mrs Granger demanded. "This is your only wedding. If all goes well," she added.
Hermione chose to ignore her mother's second statement and replied, "And it's Andrew's only wedding as well. It's the getting married part that matters, not the where."
"All right, dear. It's your funeral."
"Wedding. It's my wedding, mother."
"Not at this rate it isn't," Mrs Granger said with a pointed look.
"Oh, Merlin," Hermione sighed.
Mrs Granger shook her head. "We'll deal with this later. Now, do you have any ideas for your bridesmaids' gowns?"
Hermione's eyes widened. "Gowns? I haven't even chosen my bridesmaids!"
"You mean to tell me you haven't a clue who will be standing next to you during the most important day of your life?"
"Mother, it's hardly the most important- " Hermione began, but was cut off by her mother's stare. "What I meant to say is no," Hermione amended quickly. "I was so caught up with the proposal and telling you and…well, I suppose it simply slipped my mind."
"Well, we already know who your Maid of Honour is, so we don't need to worry about that," Mrs Granger said, checking something else off of her list.
"Wait, we do?" Hermione asked, furrowing her brow. This was certainly news to her.
Mrs Granger looked up at her daughter. "Of course we do, Hermione," Mrs Granger replied as if her daughter had just asked the most ridiculous question in the world. When Hermione continued to stare Mrs Granger answered, "Samantha."
"Sam?" Hermione gaped at her mother. "Mum, no offense, but I am not making Sam my Maid of Honour."
"Hermione, she's your cousin."
"And a horrible one at that!" Hermione cried. "She tortured me, remember? Told me I had to cut off all of my hair or the Hair Monster would eat me."
"She was five! And besides, you never even cared about your hair."
"And I was three, and It was still wrong!"
"Fine. If not Samanth, then who do you have in mind?"
"Well, honestly," Hermione said, biting her lip, "I was thinking…maybe, well…Ginny?"
"Ginny?" Mrs Granger repeated, a mixture of confusion and incredulity in her eyes. "Who on earth is Ginny?"
"Mum," Hermione groaned, letting her head fall onto the table.
"Really, Hermione, don't `Mum,' me. I don't think I've even met this girl! How can a girl I never met be your Maid of Honour?"
"She's my best friend!" Hermione cried from underneath her arms.
"I thought Harry was your best friend."
"He is," Hermione said, emitting a frustrated sigh. "But she's my best female friend." Hermione finally lifted herself back up. "She's Ron's little sister."
"Oh, that Ginny," Mrs Granger said, comprehension dawning on her face.
"How many Ginnys are there?"
"The one who slept with Harry?" Mrs Granger asked, ignoring Hermione's question.
"Yes…wait, what?" Hermione did a double take. "No, absolutely not. Mum, they dated way back in sixth year. She was only fifteen!"
Mrs Granger raised an eyebrow as if to say, "And?"
"No, mother, no, that's just…no. They barely even dated. No," Hermione finished firmly, but inside she couldn't help but feel a bit queasy.
"Hmm," Mrs Granger said, clearly not convinced. "Well if she's your choice for Maid of Honour, then all right. When do you plan on telling her?"
"I suppose now is as good a time as any," Hermione sighed. Although she didn't look forward to Ginny announcing her takeover of her wedding, it was better than staying here as her mother stuck her nose into her best friends' sex lives. Hermione loved her mother, she really did, but there was only so much a girl could take in two days. Sadly for Mrs Granger, Hermione was approaching her limit.
*****
"All right, so here's the deal," Ginny said, whipping out her wand and pointing to the blackboard, which contained an elaborate scheme. "We help plan the wedding as if it's happening."
"Which it is," Ron interrupted, pointing out the obvious.
Ginny glared at her brother. "Quiet, Ronald," she instructed through gritted teeth. "Now, as I was saying," she continued, flinging the wand again so it made a loud crack against the blackboard, "we continue on as if everything is normal, helping Hermione and her Maid of Honour whenever they need us - enough so it looks like we're involved, but not enough to come out of this looking like complete arses - but all the while we are secretly sabotaging the entire thing!" Ginny grinned ear to ear, clearly proud of her scheme, as she followed the arrow that pointed from "Fake wedding planning" to "SABOTAGE."
Ron stared at his sister in disbelief. "Hermione's going to kill you, you realize that, right?"
"Honestly, Ron, she'll be too busy shagging Harry to give a damn."
Ron cringed. "Would you please stop talking about my two best friends shagging? That's the second time in the last hour! Maybe you don't realize it, but that image is almost as bad as imagining you in bed with someone. Even worse, because it's like my brother and sister- " Ron stopped short and turned green. "Oh, Merlin. Let's move on, because I think I'm about to be sick."
"That's perfectly fine with me," Ginny said, then muttered under her breath, "About time you stopped trying to monopolize the conversation."
"What was that?" Ron asked suspiciously.
"You're just hearing things," Ginny said shortly. "Now the key to this plan is to act normal. I'll keep up with my bridesmaid duties- "
"Ginny, she hasn't even asked you."
"Oh, honestly, Ronald. It's me. Of course she's going to ask me to be a bridesmaid, I'm-"
But what Ginny was Ron would never know, as at that moment Hermione appeared in Ron's living room.
"Ginny!" Hermione said. Ginny gave a small scream and quickly muttered a cloaking spell on the blackboard and thanked Merlin that her body had blocked Hermione's view. Hermione frowned. "Since when does apparating scare you?"
"Since I'm in the middle of a very important conversation with my brother!" Ginny exclaimed, quickly covering up her faux pas.
"Important conversation?" Hermione inquired. "Concerning?"
As Ginny racked her brain for an answer, Ron quickly put in, "Andrew's bachelor party!"
Ginny's eyes widened as she stared at her brother in horror. What was he thinking?
"Bachelor party?" Hermione repeated, taking a step forward. "You don't think that maybe Andrew's friends might want to be in charge of that?"
"Oh, wow, we didn't think of that!" Ron exclaimed as Ginny contained the urge to slam her head into the wall. "Right, well, now that we have that settled I guess we can stop with our plans, right, Gin?" Ron called over to his sister, who simply shook her head in disbelief.
"Right," Hermione said slowly, eyeing her two friends suspiciously. "Anyway, Ginny, I wanted to talk about a certain aspect of the wedding with you. Involving your place in it, I mean."
Ginny turned to Ron and awarded him with a smirk. Ron rolled his eyes. Of course Ginny got what she wanted. It was as if the universe dictated it to be so.
"Oh, Hermione!" Ginny exclaimed, turning back to her best friend as she faked surprise and honour. "I would love to be a bridesmaid! Just so long as I have a say in the dress desi- "
"Actually," Hermione cut in before Ginny could get ahead of herself, "I was hoping that, well, that you would be my Maid of Honour." Hermione waited breathlessly for another smirk to cross Ginny's face, and possibly a victory dance of sorts. Instead, Hermione witnessed Ginny's first "Oh, bloody hell" expression.
Ron watched as his sister turned an interesting shade of white. "You are so screwed," Ron laughed at her.
Hermione looked back and forth between the two siblings. "Did I miss something?"
"No, of course not!" Ginny answered, regaining her cool. So Hermione wanted Ginny to be her right hand woman during the wedding plans. This wasn't a crisis, was it? All right, so the Maid of Honour was supposed to be supportive - Ginny could be supportive. Just not in an, "I support this wedding and will do everything I can to make it perfect" sort of way. More of a, "You're in love with Harry, you blind bat, and since I don't want you to move to the States I'm going to make you finally realize this, even if it kills you" way. That was still supportive, right? And, Ginny realized, it would be much easier to sabotage the wedding if she were the Maid of Honour. She would be with Hermione day and night until the wedding, which would make dropping subtle hints a piece of cake. Ginny felt her stomach churn at the idea of deceiving someone who had just revealed how much they trusted her, but she pushed away the guilt when she reminded herself that, in the end, Hermione would thank her.
"Wow, I certainly didn't imagine this was something you needed to think over," Hermione said in disbelief. "I thought you and authority went hand in- "
"I'll do it!" Ginny announced, causing Ron's jaw to drop open. Was his sister truly insane? "Of course I'll do it, Hermione. It'd be a," Ginny paused as she considered what word women of a lower self esteem would use in such a situation, "privilege." She plastered a smile on her face.
Hermione ran over to Ginny and hugged her. "Oh, Ginny, thank you! I thought you'd say yes, of course, but I never imagined you would be so gracious. This will be such-" Hermione was about to say, "Fun," but a loud ring interrupted her. "Oh, bother," Hermione sighed, letting go of Ginny and pulling out her mobile. She glanced at the screen. "It's my mother, Gin. I better apparate home and take it. She's a bit like you - never gives up. I'll talk to you later about plans so far, okay?"
"Sounds wonderful!" Ginny exclaimed in her overly-joyful voice. Hermione disappeared from the room with a pop, and Ginny resisted the urge to collapse on the floor.
"Well," Ron said, turning to Ginny. He stared at her, waiting for an explanation of some sort. When none came he demanded, "What the bloody hell did you just do?"
"I can handle this," Ginny insisted just as she began experiencing something entirely new - stress. Ron raised an eyebrow. "Don't give me that look, Ron, I can absolutely handle this! All I need to do is- "
"Plan a wedding while sabotaging it, thus effectively betraying your best friend?" Ron cut in.
Ginny glared at her brother. "Right. The same plan as before, just with a few minor changes."
"I'd say those are some fairly serious changes."
Ginny swallowed. This was going to be one tough scheme to pull off. "Don't worry, Ron," she told him, determined not to reveal her severe doubts. "It'll be a piece of cake. Just watch."
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